Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Country roooaaaads take me hooooooooome

I found a cheap plane ticket and flew home to see my family last week! Here is what I saw.

It was great! Sparky is a madman, the donkeys are shaggy, the cows have babies, and you can't keep Blanche out of the pond. Spring! Spring on the farm!

It's been raining for about 10 years here in DC, but it seems to have finally stopped. We got something like 4 or 5 inches of rain in less than 24 hours, which meant that I emptied the huge stock pot in the closet twice in that time. See, the rain pools on that part of the roof, so for every inch outside we get like three inside. In the closet anyway. The other leaks are less active.

Let's talk about housing in DC for a minute. DC is the 3rd most expensive city in the country. Housing prices here are absolutely outrageous. I'm sensitive to my surroundings, Brax. I want to live in a nice place. Not fancy--just give me someplace that is clean and has a little character, and I'll do the rest.

When we first moved here, we looked about about 10 places. This was the last place we looked at, and before we came here I was literally near tears thinking that I'd have to live in a nasty ass basement. I was just out of college and Matt was starting law school and we didn't have any savings or anything. We were pretty much completely broke, and the transition from Columbus (neat little places for $600 a month) to DC (dank, roach infested holes in the ground for $1300 and up) was...difficult. Not to say horrifying. OK, I was completely horrified. There were chicken bones on the steps of, like, half the places we looked at. Why? I guess because people hang out on the steps of empty apartments and eat chicken. I don't freaking know. I DO know that if I were a landlord showing an apartment I'd get there early and clean up the chicken bones. I'm not a fancy lady, but I didn't want to live in the chicken bone house.

So I put up with a leaky roof for 3 years because a nice little place near the metro with a leaky roof was lovely compared to the similarly priced places we looked at: revolting little cellars with chicken bones on the front stoop and kitchens so narrow that the fridge wouldn't open. Most of the DC people who see our apartment remark on the great deal we're getting. It's a different universe out here, Brax.

Well, in spite of the leaky roof, this place has been good to us, so I'm not really complaining, but I must admit it will be wonderful to wake up May 29th in Ohio in my affordable little yellow house with a yard (!) and six (SIX. SIX.) closets.

Prepare yourself, because the retrospective philosophizing is not over. The closer we get to this move the more transitional navel gazing I do. Which I guess makes sense. You'll all just have to bear with me until I knock it off.